BEIRUT/DAMASCUS/ AMMAN: Syrian forces killed at least 140 people Sunday including up to 100 in the central city of Hama when the army stormed the flashpoint protest city on the eve of Ramadan, in what analysts say could prove a turning point in the four month uprising.

Elsewhere across the country, at least 40 other civilians were shot and killed in what opposition groups described as one of the deadliest days since demonstrators first took to the streets on March 15 demanding democratic reforms before turning their wrath on the authorities.

In a dawn campaign unpleasantly reminiscent of the infamous 1982 ‘Hama massacre’ when an estimated 20,000 people were killed in an uncompromising crush of an Islamist uprising, tanks which had been stationed outside, sealing off the city for a month, entered the city on four fronts at around 6 a.m.
Army also stormed the entrances on foot, opening fire randomly and making mass arbitrary arrests, opposition groups reported.

Residents described scenes of carnage in the city. Witnesses said corpses were lying in the streets and hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties, suggesting the death toll could rise sharply. Residents shouted “God is great!” and threw firebombs, stones and sticks at the tanks, residents said.
The crackle of gunfire and thud of tank shells echoed across the city, and clouds of black smoke drifted over rooftops.

Hama residents told Reuters by telephone that tanks and snipers fired into unarmed residential areas where people had set up makeshift roadblocks to try and stop their advance.
The Syrian state news agency said the military entered Hama to purge armed groups “shooting intensively to terrorize citizens.” A U.S. Embassy official in Damascus dismissed this official account as “nonsense.”

By mid-afternoon the Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah said the civilian death toll in Hama had risen to 80. The independent group cited medical officials and witnesses in its report. Citing hospital officials, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the death toll in Hama was likely to rise, mentioning that dozens were badly wounded in the attack.

Later in the day some human rights groups estimated the number of dead may be as high as 150 in Hama alone.
Syrian authorities have expelled most independent journalists since the unrest began in March, making it difficult to verify reports of violence and casualties.
A doctor, who did not want to be further identified for fear of arrest, told Reuters that most bodies were taken to the city’s Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals.

Scores of people were wounded and blood for transfusions was in short supply, he said by telephone from the city, which has a population of around 700,000.
“Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants,” the doctor said, the sound of machinegun fire crackling in the background.

Residents said that irregular Alawite “shabbiha” militia accompanied the invading forces in buses.
The state news agency said military units were fighting gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns.
Another resident said that army snipers had climbed onto the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison.

Tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute in and around north Hama, residents said. Electricity and water supplies to the main neighborhoods had been cut, a tactic used regularly by the Syrian military when sweeping into restive towns.
The current unrest has pitted primarily demonstrators from the Sunni Muslim majority against Assad’s minority Alawite sect, which dominates the security services and ultra-loyalist army divisions commanded by Assad’s feared brother Maher.

Some critics said Assad’s assault on Hama suggested an attempt to stamp out unrest before Ramadan, when people refrain from food and drink between dawn and dusk, begins Monday.
“Assad is trying to resolve the matter before Ramadan when every daily fasting prayer threatens to become another Friday [of post-prayer protests.] But he is pouring oil on a burning fire and now the Hama countryside is rising in revolt,” said Yasser Saadeldine, a Syrian Islamist living in exile in Qatar.

Elsewhere, opposition sources said Sunday that secret police personnel had arrested Sheikh Nawaf al-Bashir, head of the main Baqqara tribe in the rebellious province of Deir al-Zour.
Hours before his arrest Bashir told Reuters he was striving to stop armed resistance to a military assault on the provincial capital of Deir al-Zour and convince inhabitants to stick to peaceful methods, despite killings by security forces.